Closing arguments in suit over failed development

A week after a lawsuit against developer Dan Boss went to trial, jurors heard closing arguments on Monday.

The jury will decide whether or not Boss defrauded and mislead a group of former Howell Township homeowners. The former residents all lost their homes after becoming involved in a failed plan to develop a subdivision on North Burkhart Road, which began in 2005.

Boss’ lawyer Roger Hyde called it an “unfortunate business transaction that resulted in lost homes.” It was “not fraud” but rather a casualty of “the economic recession,” he said during closing arguments.

Hyde essentially argued that Boss always wanted for the project to succeed and did not do anything to sabotage it nor defraud anyone.

However, plaintiff’s lawyer Brace Kern has tried to argue that Boss mislead homeowners into thinking he would pursue the development when he was actually ready to abandon it. Instead of making the homeowners a lot of money, the only profit went to Boss Engineering for some development work the company did for the project, Kern contended.

Many of the arguments in the trial have revolved around sewer and water assessments that were put on the properties in anticipation of the 69-unit subdivision, which was to be called the Sunset Chase Development. Twenty-three REUs were allocated to each of the approximately 11-acre properties. When the Winter 2007 tax bills came due, Boss Engineering wrote a check on behalf of Bogo Cogo LLC., an investment corporation that was to be the funding arm of Ventura Capital LLC. However, after that he stopped and the homeowners’ got large tax bills.

The plan was for the homeowners to get the “back ten acres” of their properties released from their mortgages and put the land into a company, Ventura Capital LLC. They would keep their homes on one acre of land. However, this never happened.

Kern has tried to show that the homeowners thought their financial obligation was limited to paying the taxes on their homes and one acre of land. Kenney and Ventura both testified that they thought Boss would take care of everything and their only job was to contribute the land into the development.

Kern also tried to argue that Boss created Boss Cogo LLC as a way to “avoid liability” or basically deflect all the risk away from himself and Boss Engineering.

However, Hyde argued that Boss Cogo LLC was a legitimate business with a federal ID number, tax returns and accounting books.

During closing arguments, Kern accused Boss of “dumping the project” when he knew he did not want to go forward with it by doing things like “cutting it loose” by selling off shares of Boss Cogo LLC. He tried to show that Boss made the former homeowners’ believe he was willing to do what was needed to make the development happen, with no intention of continuing.

Hyde argued that Boss made sure the Winter 2007 special tax assessments were paid because Ventura Capital LLC would not have been able to take title until assessments were “paid and up to date,” he said Monday. He argued that Boss still intended to take title and move ahead with the project at this point.

Boss is “not responsible for the drop in real estate values,” Hyde said during closing arguments. He also argued that Boss tried to help convince the banks to release the acreage.

The jury will begin deliberations on Tuesday morning after getting their instructions.

Contact Livingston Daily county and townships reporter Jennifer Eberbach at 517-548-7148 or at jeberbach@livingstondaily.com. Follow her on Twitter @JenTheWriter.